Email international.utm@utoronto.ca to book a consultation to discuss embedding international experience into your classroom!
Global Learning Initiatives are academic and co-curricular opportunities that allow UTM students to engage with international communities. Global Learning Initiatives are intentionally open to allow for variations and approaches that are discipline, regional, and challenge specific. By embedding a global learning initiative within your course you can expand student learning beyond the classroom, build relationships with international institutions and organizations, and internationalize the learning experience. Global Learning Initiatives offer many benefits to students such as:
-
Providing opportunities for intercultural development
-
Enhancing communication skills
-
Allowing students to develop professionally and personally
-
Improving problem-solving skills
-
Empowering students
UTM Abroad
UTM Abroad Academic Experiences are developed by academic departments, taught by UTM faculty, and linked to the International Education Centre who facilitates the UTM Abroad program. Courses are offered during the semester, or year, with an embedded global experience during the break periods (e.g. Fall/Winter Reading Week), or embedded in a summer course. Pedagogically, UTM Abroad Academic Experiences capitalize on their international location, connecting the global experience to the course material. Options for this include;
-
A semester or full-year course with a mandatory embedded international experience during a study break or an embedded experience during the summer.
-
A semester or full-year course with an optional embedded international experience during a study break or an embedded experience during the summer. Those students who do not partake in the international experience would complete an assignment locally.
-
UTM Abroad Co-Curricular Experiences can also be developed with faculty and run as an incubator for future academic opportunities.
You can find more information about UTM Abroad here.
Exchange
Through the Exchange program students have the exciting opportunity to see the world while earning credits towards their degree with 120+ partner institutions in over 40 countries. Within the Exchange program there is;
-
Course Based Exchange, where students work with their academic departments before they begin Exchange to determine the equivalencies for the credits they earn overseas – ensuring the time they spend on Exchange does not add time onto their degree.
-
International Research, where students have the opportunity to work in a foreign lab, learn new research techniques, and network with professors and graduate students from universities around the world.
Additionally, many of our international partners offer unique and exciting learning opportunities that can be part of your exchange. These might be internships, field courses or other types of experiential opportunities. You can find a list of these opportunities here.
You can find more information about Outbound Exchange here.
Global Classrooms
Global Classrooms (GC) offer an accessible way to internationalize teaching and learning experiences by combining cross-cultural collaborations with technology. Additionally, they enable faculty and instructors to work closely with peers abroad. Below are some examples of the formats a Global Classroom can take;
-
Collaborative student projects, papers, research, etc.
-
Guest lectures
-
Geographically distributed group projects
-
Sharing resources / presenting finding to one another
-
Develop and deliver an entire course with an international colleague
For more details on UofT’s Global Classrooms please visit https://learningabroad.utoronto.ca/gc-home/.
IEC Services
The IEC will support you in the development of these initiatives allowing you to embed international learning into an existing or a new course in a way that is tailored to your course needs. The IEC can support the following areas:
-
Consultation on best practices in the delivery of international initiatives
-
Outreach, relationship building and maintenance with international community partners, companies and partner institutions
-
Overall support with the development and delivery of international learning opportunities including logistics, program administration and relevant university policies
-
Coordination of international travel including risk and accessibility assessments and audits
-
Development of marketing resources including promotion through the IEC outlets (e.g. website, tabling, recruitment fairs, etc.)
-
Student development support focused on intercultural development and global awareness (e.g. pre-experience workshops,post-experience reflections, asynchronous materials etc.)
-
Budget planning and management of the compulsory academic ancillary fee governance process
-
Participant registration, fee collection, overall communication, and student support
-
Coordination of privacy, AODA standards and accommodations
-
Student needs-based bursary program for UTM Abroad Experiences
Next Steps
Email international.utm@utoronto.ca to book a consultation and we will support your request accordingly. Depending on the type of global learning you would like to embed the lead time for program development can vary widely. We recommend contacting us as soon as possible. It is not necessary to have partners in mind or a clear direction when initiating the process. We are happy to provide informational consultations.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the typical timeline for adding a Global Learning Initiative to a course?
The timeline for adding GLI to your course varies depending on the type of GLI you are interested in. For less intensive options (guest lecture, joint projects, etc.) we can complete set-up in 1-6 months. For more intensive options and/or options that have an associated cost (UTM Abroad, joint course development) we accept proposals late summer one year prior to the academic year that you want to run the experience (i.e. we will be accepting proposals for Fall 2022 to Summer 2023 in late summer 2021). Please contact us for an approximate timeline for your global learning initiative.